auschwitz/birkenau.
We were up early the next morning. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily as we searched around for the breakfast place that Peter had recommended but we must have missed it and ended up in another place. We ordered breakfast [a continental breakfast which I don't like] and sat and ate it while rain was pouring in through the roof around us! A memorable meal if only for the sound of water dripping in the buckets around us and it being the first time I'd eaten with my flat cap on purposefully! Tel was oblivious of the water and ate both his and part of mine! He's a good eater is Tel! We went back to the hotel and boarded the mini-bus which would take us to Auschwitz/Birkenau. With us were another half dozen folk. Most were Americans doing the 'European Tour'. Nice folk they were and we got along merrily. The bus took us through the Polish countryside which was delightful - lush and green and densely agricultural. I'm not a 'talker' [I left that to Tel who can talk the hind legs off a donkey] so I just watched the villages and countryside as we journeyed to the museum.
After about an hour, we arrived at our destination.
I won't go into too many details of the place, I'll just tell you of my experiences and feelings about it. You can find much more about them on the link below.
I was surprised at the number of people there. There were literally thousands. I didn't realise it when we arrived, but those numbers were the reason I wouldn't recommend a visit to this place during the high season.
We did the tour of the cinema which showed a film, most of which I'd already seen on the tv. We then moved off to walk around the main camp of Auschwitz, through the infamous gates of death with the immortal words, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom.) Can there be a more sinister and ironic sign anywhere in the world? It was very moving to be walking through the same gates that had led to so much suffering and horror.
Entering the camp. Our guide is the blonde girl in the centre of the picture.
Some of our American friends are there too.
I was a bit shocked as we moved into the camp. I was expecting old dilapidated buildings but they actually looked like almost new rustic tenements. After all, these were 'old' buildings - I thought. Indeed they are, they are actually over 60 years old but buildings situated in a pollution free place tend to stay new looking. That didn't sit well with me at all.
Click to enlarge - perhaps you can see what I mean? Does this look like a 'death
camp' to you!
We moved on, through the rooms with the exhibits of various things to do with the time of the 'Holocaust' and the horrors the inmates went through. Most of them were gruesome and moving but the most moving of all - to me- was behind a large plate glass some 10 metres long which was filled with tiny shoes, and the realisation that every pair of these shoes had once been worn by a small child who had been murdered there. The fact that the display items were a minute quantity of the total amount of shoes taken from the poor wee souls didn't detract one bit from the solemnity of the moment for me. One pair would have been enough for me - but all these thousands! I'm an agnostic, but I can honestly say, "may their God bless them, keep them safe and re-unite them with their loved ones for all eternity."
We saw the 'Death Wall' (reconstructed) where many thousands were shot and the cells where many were tortured. We saw the 'food' they ate and the meagre blankets that kept them 'warm'. We saw the hair that had been shaven from their heads and woven into cloth and the prosthetics that had been taken from the cripples. We saw the thousands of named suitcases, each one carrying the history and last worldly goods of each family. We saw too much - certainly too much for someone who had not experienced any of these horrors to truly understand the enormity of the place. Perhaps it's just too much for any normal, decent human being to take in, but as moved as I was, I was not as moved as I thought I would be. Tel agreed with me on that too.
The reason for that was because of the amount of people being herded through. There were literally thousands there and each had a guide. There were small groups like ours and large groups with about 100 in them. To keep the place ticking over, at each exhibit, we only had a small amount of time so we had to keep moving on to accommodate the next group. And that's what I meant when I said that the best time to visit is off-peak and not during the summer months. I would advise anyone who is contemplating making a visit to go as far away from the main season as possible. Only then, in my opinion, can one take the time to digest the realities of the place and sit and dwell for a few moments to give proper thought to the moment.
We came out of the main camp and journeyed the short distance to Birkenau which was the main death camp. Click on the link below to take you to my thoughts on that place.